Sidekicks

Gr 7—10—Bright Boy, sidekick of Batman-like superhero Phantom Justice, aka Trent Clancy, rescues a beautiful female hostage from the clutches of evil Rogue Warrior, but is powerless to conceal his erection that is all-too-obvious in his yellow tights—a costume that the live helicopter news feeds show he has clearly outgrown. His humiliation extends even to the kindergartners at his exclusive private Manhattan school and Phantom Justice is inexplicably unsympathetic, telling Bright Boy, aka Scott, to "control it." Their nemesis, Dr. Chaotic, escapes from prison and with his sidekick, Monkeywrench, provokes a confrontation. In the dustup, Monkeywrench is revealed to be a girl—Scott's classmate Allison—but she also discovers his identity. Long story short, they fight and flirt, fall for each other, and soon learn to prefer quiet conversations and kissing to fisticuffs. Two sections of white font on black pages reveal that Phantom Justice is a fraud, in cahoots with his evil counterparts, paid by giant corporations to stage their fights so as to provide them with free publicity—all those live helicopter news feeds. Further, PJ coldly plans to murder the troublesome sidekicks, just as he's disposed of other collaborators he no longer needed. This is a fast-reading, cleverly told, entertaining tale, sort of a graphic novel without the pictures. Although loose ends abound, the fun is in the boy-meets-girl story. Readers will be entertained and will hope for a quick sequel to fill in the gaps.—Joel Shoemaker, formerly at South East Junior High School, Iowa City, IA